Long hours, poor pay

From her poverty-stricken family in remote Jambezi communal lands in the Zambezi Valley, she had come for work in the city where she was told that she would work as a domestic worker and at the same time, enjoy a milk and honey kind of life.

Leaving her three young siblings and her grandmother behind in the bowels of Jambezi in Matabeleland North, Mary was had been linked to this employer by a middle-aged woman who seemed to be a very experienced domestic worker.

“She told me there would be plenty of food. She told me about electricity and th egood life. She also told me about a good salary which I would not even use.
“Her tongue was sleek and convincing that I saw myself banking some of the money and sending some to my sisters and grandmother. I dreamed of myself changing the life of our homestead but, hey, I cannot even raise bus fare to go back to the village,’’ laments Mary.

Back in the village, in the privacy of stockade houses, under shade trees, around the village well, in the village gossips and even during their meals everyone talked about her as they envied her courage to venture into the wide world in town.

Before she left, she had promised all her siblings that she would start taking on family problems as soon as she got her first salary.
The woman who had linked to the job had deliberately not clarified on the working conditions.

At the age of 13, Mary’s job was to do all the domestic chores one could think of, and in doing all the domestic chores she got the least of salaries one could ever imagine.
It turned out her salary was less than the bus fare she would use to go back to the village.

The job she got as a domestic worker was not all that rosy, the glitters in the city were indeed not gold.
She later learnt that most domestic workers were a result of local human trafficking. But this had not happened to her alone.

The scenario on the ground is that young boys and girls are ending up in situations where they are lured to migrate from their homes to other areas and as result engage into forced labour.

In Zimbabwe they are various areas which are targeted by people for cheap labour and exploitation.
Mrs Dorcas Dlamini confirmed that she makes sure that all her domestic workers are from the remotest parts of Zimbabwe so that she or he doesn’t get any time off work.

Some of those people who target the remote parts also take advantage the employees as they underpay them.
Mary narrates her story that she is working for US$15 per month.

“When I first came from Jambezi to the city, I was promised US$80 per month but to my surprise the salary decreased to US$15 with no reason offered. This is less than the bus fare I used to come here.

“I do all the work for my boss, all she does is sleep and eat, I cook for her husband, wash for her husband,” she explained.
Mary shares her bedroom with her boss’ six month-old-baby boy, whenever the boy gets sick the blame is put on her.

She wakes up at around 3am everyday to prepare food for the young children who go to school.
She explains how she spends most of her time working without rest.

“I don’t get a time to rest. If I break anything in the house my salary is deducted. I do not sit on their chairs neither am I allowed to use their bathrooms, but the funny thing is I do all their laundry.

“It’s been seven months now and I haven’t got the chance to have a day off,” she explained.
Mrs Stella Mpofu, who deals with vulnerable children in Hwange, said most children tend to fall for the domestic trap because of their conditions at home.

“Some of these young people, who come to the cities for work, end up in the trap of making some decisions that they will regret the rest of their lives,” said Mrs Mpofu.
She said the 80 percent of such children who come for work in the town are not really aware of the conditions they will face.

“Some young girls and boys are linked to the town by people who they really don’t know, most of these victims end up in regretting because they encounter financial and emotional abuse.

“She further said most of these victims suffer a silent death as most of them do not talk about their grievances or their predicament.”
Most of them work for very long hours for very low payment, some are even asked to do the work which is beyond their job descriptions.

Human trafficking comes in many ways. Locally young people are lured and forced to come to the city for cheap labour.
According to the United Nations crime fighting office, 2,4 million people across the globe are a victim of human trafficking and 80 percent of them who are being exploited are women.

Human trafficking does not only mean to sell people beyond the borders, but even selling them locally is human trafficking.

Rutendo Mapfumo is a journalist based in Hwange